fishers

Another educational food production platform, if nothing else….

When I worked at marketumbrella.org, one of the many projects that I helped design and run was our White Boot Brigade, the roaming shrimper market for added seasonal seafood sales. Rouse’s Supermarkets was an early supporter of the WBB, and we genuinely enjoyed working with this Houma-based family company. Since they gamely took on being the main grocery store chain in our city (when Sav-A-Center decided that post-Katrina New Orleans wasn’t for them), I for one was very happy as I knew them and knew their stores. New Orleanians are VERY picky about their “markets” (as stores are often called) and yet, the Rouse family has mostly met their needs. As for buying locally, they do buy, they do support local entrepreneurs. Farmers have a harder time getting their produce in there, but value-added farmers market vendors seem to be doing well.
They just opened a store a few blocks from the flagship Saturday farmers market in downtown New Orleans, and I think it will help both the market and the store. That store is the subject of this excellent story on their new rooftop garden.

The only supermarket in downtown New Orleans is the first grocery in the country to develop an aeroponic urban farm on its roof.

What exactly is an aeroponic urban garden?

Think vertical instead of horizontal. The garden “towers” use water rather than soil, and allow plants to grow upward instead of outward. It was developed by a former Disney greenhouse manager, and is used at Disney properties, the Chicago O’Hare Airport Eco-Farm and on the Manhattan rooftop of Bell Book & Candle restaurant.

Rouse’s downtown

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SoulFire4TheGulf | Turtle Women Rising

SoulFire4TheGulf is a Gulf Healing Ceremony inspired by New Orleans Medicine Person and Musician, Dr. John. In Solidarity and Support of his vision, Turtle Women Rising and the tribal communities of Isle de Jean Charles, Pointe aux Chien, the Dulac Bands of the Biloxi, Chitimacha, Choctaw and the Atakapa Ishak Tribe join in Unity to welcome the Grandmothers, Elders and People of All Nations to support a Stand For The Earth April 16-20, 2012 in Mandeville and New Orleans, Louisiana.

SoulFire4TheGulf | Turtle Women Rising.

Support this wonderful work

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WWNO: Louisiana Eats 12-28-11: Year In Review

Poppy Tooker is a favorite of every serious (and lighthearted) food organizer in my region – and if you want to get honest about it – those smart ones far beyond her beloved Gumbo Nation.

I could go on and on about her, but let me say this: Food organizers should be so lucky as to have a Poppy Tooker in their midst. She has done many things, including being largely responsible for the speed in which we rebuilt our food system after the federal levee breaks by alternately cheering, cursing and championing those producers (and market managers like myself) that needed to get back up and running, finding us money and support and the words to explain ourselves.
For many years, she has reclaimed food and its dignity in dozens of ways, with unique style and dedication, even while making everyone shake their head with laughter or hide it in fear of her righteous wrath at times too.
All as a VOLUNTEER.
She wrote the glorious Crescent City Farmers Market cookbook and now finds herself a radio star of the first order on the public radio station in New Orleans. Listen to her online now, here, because she is going to be heard a lot more places soon, and you can say, “Oh Poppy? I been listening to her for YEARS..”

WWNO: Louisiana Eats 12-28-11: Year In Review (2011-12-28).

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Oysters suffer too

In 2009, I went to Puget Sound to film sustainable oyster farming at Taylor Shellfish. Those short videos are to be found on the You Tube channel of marketumbrella.org. The company works with small oyster growers like the amazing Evan and John Adams of Sound Fresh Oysters who have varieties that they only bring to the Olympia Farmers Market.
Taylor also grows their own and encourage home growers with a waterfront oyster garden kit that they sell one day a month, to help people understand how oysters develop. (Go to the Go Fish chapter and look for the oyster videos.)
YouTube channel
I have never forgotten how the Taylors (and Oyster Bill!) build the future of their ecosystem with their techniques and can only hope that some of their innovation can rub off on my own oystermen of Southeastern Louisiana so we can save our dying oyster industry here.
However, the issues are constant, and one grave threat is explained in the article link. When will environmental destruction finally hit home for humans? What amount of food will we have to lose before we address it?

Acidification

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Muddy fish tales

The world’s largest independent product-testing organization revealed last week that 22% of the seafood it tested at supermarkets, restaurants, fish markets, gourmet stores and big-box stores in three states was either mislabeled, incompletely labeled or misidentified by store or restaurant employees.

I would assume that this research does not include producer-only farmers markets that have seafood.
So its another example of how criteria at farmers markets helps consumers.

USA Story

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Fishermen in crisis

Disasters have a way of leaving spectators’ daily memory bank to make room for new ideas and sometimes, for trials that are closer to home. Unfortunately, those that experienced the issues firsthand stay there once everyone has moved on.
The Gulf Coast oil spill tragedy is really still in its early days. The impact of the water quality on the region is mostly unknown but the Exxon Valdez spill gave some hints as to the potential long term danger to the seafood system.
What’s causing these dramatic shrimp declines is still unknown, government officials say. Some blame the floods last spring for pushing high levels of water into traditional fishing grounds. But many fishermen don’t buy it; they blame the oil. Fish and shrimp can move, and they can survive inflows of fresh water. Fishermen say if they’re out there, they know how to catch them. But so far, most haven’t been able to.
Mississippi fishermen

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Southern Food

Although we have many barriers yet to remove in the South, we are lucky to have valued and retained a great deal of our food culture. We are also lucky to have Southern Foodways Alliance diligently working to capture history and help create new history too. Their website is a treasure trove of stories, recipes and facts of southern food. Their events often sell out quickly-for good reason.

One of the projects they have begun is a movie. Here is the filmmaker’s story:
Hey, I’m Joe York. I make documentaries for the Southern Foodways Alliance and the University of Mississippi’s Media & Documentary Projects Center. In early 2010, we began production of a feature-length documentary film with the oh so original working title of “Southern Food: The Movie”.
Read more about his project:
Movie

And become a member to stay in touch with all of their excellent work.

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No time to hide your head…

Good news for champions of wild-caught seafood. The latest news on turtle-excluder devices (TEDs) shows a 90% drop in turtle deaths. This shows the importance of environmentalists and fishing families working together to solve problems rather than pointing fingers. “Our findings show that there are effective tools available for policy makers and fishing industries to reduce sea turtle bycatch, as long as they are implemented properly and consistently.” said Elena Finkbeiner, lead author of the report. Duke University and Conservational International worked together to analzye turtle bycatch data compiled by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
While at marketumbrella.org, I produced a series of films called “Go Fish” that showed innovation among fishers and markets. The one on bycatch reduction devices (BYRDs) is very useful for any market or direct-marketing fisher. All are found on their YouTube channel:
Go Fish

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Nova Scotia approves private salmon farms in lobster grounds, pushes out lobster fishermen

I find that commercial fishing families have almost no support or organizations that speak for their needs. Point seems proven once again in Nova Scotia:
Story

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